Fightin’ words: Lincoln challenged to duel near Alton 175 years ago

Lincoln challenged to duel near Alton 175 years ago

ALTON — Had it not been for a heated exchange with Abraham Lincoln, James Shields would be remembered as the only man to serve in the U.S. Senate from three different states.

But Shields, an Irish immigrant, is best known as the man who challenged Lincoln to a duel near Alton. This year marks the 175th anniversary of the seriocomic affair, which ended with no bloodshed, but embarrassed Lincoln for the rest of his life.

“Shields was a rambunctious, hot-blooded Irishman, kind of a strange fellow,” said Dr. Wayne Temple, who recently retired as the Deputy Director of the Illinois State Archives in Springfield, Ill. “I don’t think he was really that popular. He was more politician than anything else.”

Born in Altmore, Ireland in 1806, Shields came to America in 1823 and was admitted to the Illinois bar nine years later. He set up a practice in the former Illinois capital of Kaskaskia and earned a spot in the Illinois House as a Democrat in 1836. Five years later, he was sworn in as state auditor.

Along the way, he became acquainted with Lincoln, though not always on the best of terms. In August 1842, a letter, purportedly from a widow named “Rebecca,” in a Springfield newspaper referred to Shields as “a conceity dunce.” Shields demanded the identity of the letter from the editor, and was told that Lincoln, a Whig, was the author.

Days later, “Rebecca” struck again, claiming that she could fight Shields if he wore petticoats and she dressed in britches. This second letter was actually written by Lincoln’s high-spirited fiancée, Mary Todd, and a friend.

The short-fused Shields then challenged Lincoln to a duel. Reluctantly, Lincoln accepted, but clearly thought the situation through. Believing he could not compete with Shields with pistols, the long-armed Lincoln selected broadswords, as his opponent was seven inches shorter in height.

Despite his size disadvantage, Shields was undeterred. Lincoln, his second, and two other friends arrived in Alton around 11 a.m. on Sept. 22, 1842, followed by Shields and his party. From there, everyone went on to Bloody Island, a renowned dueling spot on the Mississippi River near St. Louis on Missouri soil. Friends finally intervened and the matter was called off, to Lincoln’s relief.

“That duel risked Lincoln’s political future,” commented Temple. “Under Illinois statute, anyone who engaged in a duel or accepted one in the state could be banned from public office. Since Lincoln and Shields were on Bloody Island in Missouri, there was the debate that they may have accepted and planned the duel there, rather than in Illinois. But that could have cost Lincoln everything.”

Lincoln never spoke of the duel afterward. While some writers claim Lincoln and Shields became friends, Temple believes otherwise.

“I can’t see Lincoln being that close to Shields afterward,” he remarked. “I don’t think Lincoln completely forgot it. But I do think that the proposed duel changed Lincoln’s whole life.

“Before, he had written some cutting comments in papers under assumed names, which we now believe to be his,” continued Temple. “Afterward, he didn’t do those kind of things, and was better with other people.”

In contrast, Shields often let his temper dictate relationships. Though his law partner wrote that Shields could make friends “quite readily,” he added that Shields “was exceedingly vain and very ambitious…he did not fail to show his displeasure and to become an open enemy.”

Shields was wounded in Mexican War service before earning a seat in the U.S. Senate from Illinois in 1848. He was defeated for re-election six years later, partially due to efforts from Lincoln. Shields then relocated to Minnesota, where he became one of the state’s first two U.S. Senators upon statehood in 1858.

One of those terms was a shorter, one-year stint, and Shields drew lots with the other Senator, Henry Rice, to see who would serve the longer term. Shields lost the draw, and proceeded to lose a re-election bid 10 months later.

He then left for California, declaring he was “sick and tired of public life.” He subsequently was part-owner of a mine in Mexico, but was hardly through with politics.

Though in 1860 he had declared never to “help…impose a Northern man on the South as President,” Shields enlisted in Civil War service in August 1861, and President Lincoln appointed him brigadier general.

“I, and others who have studied him, think he was a third-rate general,” remarked Temple. “But Lincoln was known for appointing neutral or in-between Democrat politicians to those sort of positions, to stand well with Republicans and make the Democrats happy. It also earned good support from the Irish population.”

Shields resigned from the Army in 1863 and went back to California, but moved to Carrollton, Missouri after the war. He twice won a seat in the Missouri legislature, and in 1879, was appointed to a five-week unexpired term in the U.S. Senate from that state, the third he had represented in the upper chamber. Claiming poor health, he did not seek re-election.

“I think Shields was kind of in the right place at the right time on many occasions,” said Temple. “He never was re-elected to the Senate after any of his terms, which kind of says that he wasn’t that great of a Senator.”

A beloved figure among Irish immigrants throughout his public life, Shields died on June 1, 1879 and is buried in Carrollton, Missouri. In 1893, the state of Illinois placed a statue of him in the U.S. Capitol.

His proposed duel with Lincoln is the namesake of the Lincoln-Shields Access Area on the Mississippi across from Alton, near the Clark Bridge.